(Photo of me and my brother on top of Mt. Whitney)
If you are reading this article, and have not read the previous parts, please read those first, and then come back. Enjoy!
I am so glad we came to the decision to go that day, and you’ll see why at the end. We began the climb and were all feeling excited. We moved at a great pace as we continued the climb. One of us started getting a little altitude sick, but it wasn’t enough to slow us down. We all powered through. The wind was strong, but thankfully pushing us into the mountain, so it didn’t cause us any problems.
We came to the famous crossing where groups would lay down their packs to reach the summit before returning and continuing. We had come so far, but it was getting just a little bit late. We had to make the decision if we were going to attempt the summit after coming so far.
My father, Lucas P., and I decided we had come so far, we had to try to reach that final peak, even whilst the others continued on without us. The winds were strong, but hopes were still up until we came to an open U where there would be no mountain beside us. The winds had reached 80-100 mph. If one tiny gust of wind came, we would be goners. And so, dejectedly, we decided that we had to return. It was so devastating, to come so far, to be so close, to see our end goal, but not to reach it. What happened next, though, we definitely couldn’t have expected.
With these unexpected winds coming out of nowhere—we now had to go down on the other side of the mountain. The problem was that the wind was blowing us into the mountain on the way up, and would now be blowing us off of the mountain instead. All we could do was half-crawl-half-walk down the mountain and hope that we could hold on.
I was steadily moving ahead when a major gust of wind came along and blew me over. I was sideways, just a couple of centimeters away from the edge, with my fate resting on the fact that a few loose stones didn’t decide to break off. Luckily, Lucas was right behind me and was able to pull me away from the edge. At that moment, I genuinely thought that it could have been the end. So did everyone else in our group. The path of switchback we were on was only 3 feet across, overlooking a massive field of boulders a thousand feet below. Despite this (admittedly notable) hiccup, we pressed forward carefully down the path.
Wait until the next publication to finish reading the story!
Comentarios